Very rarely can you end the game in the first quarter…… you must put up 3-4 quarters of good football to win (especially against a top 4 side).
I understand that people think that goal kicking is the reason we lost, but imo it’s the 6 straight goals to Brisbane. If we were further in front, they would have piled on even more goals.
You are right, probably should have written it better, i can’t remember who missed one early in the second which was not a difficult kick and then Brisbane kick the next six.
Kicking that goal could’ve helped dent the momentum/confidence of Brisbane
It was Nik Cox. Directly in front about 35 out. He also cost us two of the 6 goals that the Bears kicked. Definitely a major reason we lost.
Plus no tag on Neale and Stewart needing spectacles.
There was also a couple of times, where he marked outside 50 and Wright was one-out inside 50…… but waited, and Brisbane set up.
Not only our goal kicking but our field kicking is poor at present. I wonder how much circle work we do to hit a target 40-50 metres away? When I was at HEM cricket club we used to see the hawks train at Glenferrie oval from late December doing nothing but that:thinking:
They have curtain goals inside the Hangar (admittedly you can’t do really long kicks on bad angles).
Pls. This is massively grasping at straws, off a sample of one game. Do the maths across all teams, and come back.
I’m just saying it can’t be a positive.
But yeah so far this year at marvel we’ve kicked horrendously against st kilda and now brisbane
Port, Geelong and Bulldogs all had the same problem on the weekend…it’s always been a competition issue, not just Essendon
I’m not saying we are worst in the comp… I just think if we trained in similar conditions to where we play it would at least help a little bit… saying 5% or something.
Our current setup cannot be helping.
I didn’t isolate the MCG stats to 2000 onwards (but a large proportion of our MCG games are from 1992 onwards), but our Docklands and MCG conversion rates are basically identical to our opponents there.
Docklands we average 15.12 vs 15.11, MCG we average 13.13 vs 12.12. Rounding errors may mean the two are basically identical.
Okay still missing my point though. If we trained in conditions that were closer to marvel’s conditions (right now they are polar opposites) our goal kicking would improve
So you’d prefer our kicking was rubbish 13 times this year, rather than 9?
Let’s count backwards through our last AFL games, to the bye last season because no matter how many people mention it you seem to think we are always poor kicks for goal.
10:15, 11:6, 4:12, 16:6, 14:14, 15:7, 16:6, 7:11, 13:14, 11:18, 8:9, 8:9, 13:8.
That’s not an accuracy problem- that’s a consistency problem.
Though on averages, in 2021 we were equal 2nd for goals v behinds on 55%, along with several other teams just behind the Swans on 56%.
The anomalies - the inaccurate sides - were the stand outs, ranging from GC on the bottom with 47% to the Premiers, Melbourne, on 50%.
So while you can plead for improvement in our accuracy, it’s a bit unrealistic to ask for something that no other team has been able to do either.
It’s certainly not a stand out weakness; there’s a dozen variables to fix before obsessing over that one.
And before you ask, the last time we were actually below the League accuracy average was 2016.
For obvious reasons.
And we were more accurate last year than in 2017, 18, 19 & 20.
I’m not sure what you’re on about but based on your research our goal kicking accuracy is 55.5% at marvel.
I’m saying that if we trained in similar conditions to marvel we could improve that to say 60% or so.
It certainly wouldn’t decrease.
Right now our goal kicking practice is done with 40km winds blowing. Marvel is obviously dead still.
If I was training for an ATP indoor event I wouldn’t go to port Melbourne’s local tennis courts to practice.
Someone has bequeathed their $$ to the club 
Last Saturday i was at the game early and was watching the umpires warming up running around practicing ball ups and throw ins. the Lions came out except for Daniher and ALL lined up in or on the
50 mtr arch and had shots at goal. Essendon came out with witches hats , markers, coloured vests and did handball and, the rolling the ball along the ground run threws, Basically we did not have any shots at goal. Except for Stewart got the ball and from inside the square launched a bomb torpedo alla Fletch right threw the centre of the Bourke St goals. Then they ran in to get there game gear on…
Meanwhile Brisbane kept peppering the goals the whole team forwards backs all except Daniher.
When our guys came out for the game thats when our forwards had 5mins tops shooting at goal… only Forwards mind you and they kept missing…!!! And i was getting frustrated, missing from 30 to 40mtrs out ,hey Guelfi ,hey Smith… What happened in the Game !!! You play as you train, Simples…
interested to hear if our pre game preparation changes against the Dees.
What I noticed was with a lot of kicks, the contact was just not right through the middle of the ball. These weren’t good kicks that went astray, they were slight misses of the middle of the ball.
It’s as though they have a kick routine and if the ball drop is a bit off, then they are not correcting the leg swing. I used to coach U12 kids and you tell them to watch the cross on the top of the footy, and kick right through under that. Every time you kick a footy. This means if the ball drop is an inch wide or narrow, you adjust the leg swing. By that stage of the kick the only thing you are concentrating on is good contact. Our guys were in many of those cases missing the middle of the ball by an inch or so, and getting what I would call bad contact, which is unforgivable at that level I reckon. I don’t mind if a good solid kick swings in the wind or whatever, but professionals indoors with a dry ball should not miss the middle of it by an inch…
I remember watching David Hille before the games when he was playing and he would the pill from beyond 50 through the middle every time. In the game and he was not so accurate
Sounds very unusual, or you missed first warmup.
e.g. last week I documented Draper’s 15 shots during first warmup.